South West Florida Fishing Report - FL

February 11, 2017

Captain Dave Hanson is a native of southwest Florida. He has been fishing local waters since childhood, and has been fishing professionally for over fifteen years. He is Coast Guard licensed, and is a member in good standing of the Bonita Springs Chamber of Commerce. He has been quoted and featured in several national fishing magazines, and he also appears weekly in the fishing reports sections of the local paper.

South West Florida Fishing Report - FL

Fishbuster Charters' Captain Dave Hanson reported, "Seas were choppier than predicted Monday morning, 2/6, when I headed 17 miles offshore with Pat Cunningham and friends, Mitzy and Dave. The group used squid to box a dozen keeper lane snapper and a half dozen grunts. They released red grouper shorts.

I fished inshore in southern Estero Bay with long-time customers, Bill and Terri Tank on a windy Friday morning, 2/10. Using live shrimp, the couple caught and released eight black drum to 20 inches, a crevalle jack, a stingray, and a sheepshead short. They kept a 20-inch redfish and an 11-inch mangrove snapper for dinner.

The wind laid down nicely overnight Thursday, and I was able to get offshore Saturday morning, 2/11, to fish with John Rabe, his son, Mike, and Mike’s son, Ryan. We fished spots from 17 to 22 miles west of New Pass, using squid, and baitfish. The guys landed two keeper red grouper on baitfish, one 22 inches and one 25 inches. Squid yielded twenty keeper lane snapper, which we added to the fish box."

1.) Angler John Rankin with a 17-inch lane snapper, the largest of a mess of keeper lanes he and friends caught on squid 26 miles west of New Pass on a recent offshore Fishbuster Charter.

2.) Angler Glenn Wright with a 22-inch black drum, caught on shrimp and released in Estero Bay on a recent inshore Fishbuster Charter.

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